With the current in the stern we raced down the Amazon, putting the brakes on at midnight to disembark the Manaus pilot and then full ahead again going down stream. Although full ahead is a bit much to say, The Veendam was only doing 15 knots on the engines but the current gave us another 4.5 knots of extra push, so we were still charging down the river with 19 knots on average. This meant that I was going to arrive early, very early. It all worked out for the best as first I had promised the guests to be early and secondly, as we now had to anchor, it might take awhile before we had figured out how to dock the tenders in Parintins. We did not have to embark any pilots as the two we had onboard going up the river, rejoined in Manaus and where thus waiting on the sidelines to take over when the Manaus pilot disembarked.

In 2006, when the dock was brand new, I had received permission to dock there, although the consensus of the pilots and the harbor master was that it was not possible. It just showed how little they were used to cruise ships and to Holland America captains. The main concern was that the dock was only 140 meters long and thus the Veendam would be sticking out 80 meters without the option of having mooring ropes forward. It was not much of a problem. I swung the ship around south of the pier, then brought it back up the river just north of the pier and dropped the starboard anchor. Now with the engines stopped, I could control the drift of the ship, just by paying out anchor chain, as the current was pushing the ship down river again. The next bit was the tricky part, where the pilots did not see a solution for, and that was how to keep the bow in place. Well there was also a portside anchor. So with the thrusters, I brought the bow inside the line of the pier and payed the anchor out with about one length of chain so in total approx. 15000 pounds of steel were resting on the river bottom; more then enough to keep the bow where it had to be. The dock did only have very tiny fenders to rest against and the flood lights on the pier were only 2 inches inside the dock so that meant coming in gently gently. Calling for an “eggshell” landing. Also the fact that the pier was a floating dock meant that putting too much strain on its mooring foundation would not be good. In that way we docked; bringing the ship alongside very carefully so the portside of the ship landed just with the gentlest touch and by keeping the ship listing a little bit to starboard we could also ensure that we would never touch the floodlights. The pilots had by then left the bridge, envisioning a major disaster with the dock. But the Veendam has so much power and handles so gently that it was not an issue at all. The anchors kept the bow in position and the mooring lines the stern so the guests could just walk ashore. It was a nice show for the guests.

Unfortunately it was not possible to do this again. The classification agency had decided that the moorings of the floating dock were not strong enough any more and that extra securing measures were needed. A classification agency is something like Lloyds Register which checks and approves buildings, ships and anything else that needs to be insured and based on their report an insurance company will ensure the property. Now there was no insurance and thus no docking for the Veendam.

Close to the dock the river is very deep and therefore we had to anchor almost in the middle of the river where there was a bank. That called for a longer tender service but there was no other option. We had obtained the help from a local ferry that acted as a mooring platform for our tenders and so we could get our guests ashore. It was not perfect, but sailing on the Amazon is an expedition, not a regular cruise where all the facilities are perfectly setup.

Compared with 2006, when we had a horrendous downpour in the afternoon, we had a very good day. It was a bit warm, but what can you expect, Parintins is just 30 miles south of the Equator.

By 6 pm. I raised the anchor again and put 20 knots on the engines, which gave 22 to 23 knots of real speed. I was in a hurry now, as the schedule to Barbados is tight and I wanted to catch the outgoing tide near Macapa, so that we would get as much free speed as possible. I hope to arrive in Macapa by late afternoon tomorrow to disembark the pilots and the immigration officials who have been sailing with us for the duration of the cruise and then get to the Bar as quickly as possible as crossing it will take a long time at slow speed.